HMS Glamorgan (D19)

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Career (UK)
HMS Glamorgan
Name:	HMS Glamorgan
Builder:	Vickers-Armstrongs
Laid down:	13 September 1962
Launched:	9 July 1964
Commissioned:	11 October 1966
Decommissioned:	1986
Motto:	I Fyny Bo'r Nod (Welsh: "I Give Way To None")
Fate:	Sold to Chile on September 1986
Career (Chile)
Name:	Almirante Latorre
Acquired:	September 1986
Commissioned:	1986
Decommissioned:	1998
Fate:	Scrapped and sunk at sea in 2006
General characteristics
Class and type:	County class destroyer
Displacement:	6,200 tonnes (full load)
Length:	520 feet (160 m)
Beam:	53 feet (16 m)
Draught:	20 feet 5 inches (6.2 m)
Propulsion:	COSAG (Combined steam and gas), two sets of geared steam turbines producing 30,000 s.h.p, 2 shafts
Speed:	30 knots (56 km/h)
Range:	4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km) at 28 knots (52 km/h)
Capacity:	471
Armament:	1 × twin 4.5 inch (114 mm) gun 4 × Exocet missile launchers 2 × mountings for Seacat surface-to-air missiles 2 × Seaslug surface-to-air missile launchers aft 2 × launchers for shipborne torpedoes 2 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannon In Chilean service, Seacat replaced by Barak surface-to-air missile system
Aircraft carried:	1 × Westland Wessex III helicopter

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Glamorgan.

HMS Glamorgan (D19) was a County-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. The ship was built by Vickers-Armstrongs in Newcastle Upon Tyne. With a displacement of 5,440 tonnes, Glamorgan was named after the Welsh county of Glamorgan. She was launched on June 9, 1964, and was delivered to the Navy two years later. In the mid- 1970s Glamorgan had her 'B' turret replaced by four Exocet launchers. In the spring and early summer of 1982 Glamorgan was involved in the Falklands War and was badly damaged by an Exocet missile in the last days of the war. She spent many months in late 1982 being refitted, and was back at sea in 1983. Her last active deployment for the Royal Navy was to the coast of Lebanon, assisting British peace-keeping troops there in 1984.

She was decommissioned in 1986 and sold to the Chilean Navy. Under Chilean colours she was renamed Almirante Latorre. In 1996, Sea Cat was replaced with the SAM "Barak" system. She served for 12 years until she was decommissioned again in late 1998. In December 2005, the ship was finally sunk, while under tow to be scrapped.^{[citation needed]}

1 Falklands War campaign
- 1.1 Roll of Honour
2 See also
3 References
4 Further reading

[edit] Falklands War campaign

At the start of the Falklands campaign (2 April 1982) Glamorgan was already at sea off Gibraltar about to take part in exercises; she was immediately diverted to join the main Royal Navy task force, and served as flagship for Admiral Sandy Woodward during the voyage south. Her most useful armament proved to be her remaining twin 4.5-inch (114 mm) guns, which were used primarily to bombard enemy positions on shore.

Glamorgan was first in action on the evening and night of 1 May when she joined forces with HMS Arrow and HMS Alacrity to bombard Argentine positions around Port Stanley. The three British ships soon came under attack by Mirage III jets with two 500 lb bombs falling close alongside Glamorgan and causing minor underwater damage.

Two weeks later on 14 May she was again in action, this time supporting British special forces on Pebble Island (West Falkland), and for the next two weeks until the end of May she was almost continuously engaged bombarding various shore positions on the east of the islands mainly as part of a plan to distract attention from the landings at San Carlos, but also against the airfield at Port Stanley and in support of British forces ashore. She twice survived unsuccessful Exocet attacks.

At the beginning of June, the task force having been reinforced with other ships, Glamorgan was detached to protect shipping in the Towing, Repair and Logistics Area (TRALA), some 200 miles (320 km) away from the islands, but as the campaign reached a climax she was recalled in the evening of 11 June to support the Royal Marines fighting the Battle of Two Sisters.

At 06:37 the following morning, following an intense but ineffective air raid, she was struck by an Exocet missile fired from a shore-based launcher improvised on the back of a lorry trailer. Glamorgan was some 18 nautical miles (33 km) off shore at the time and steaming at about 20 knots (37 km/h). Her radar systems failed to detect the incoming missile (which was smaller and faster than anything they had been designed for), so the only warning was a visual contact. Fortunately the ship was moving fast enough to be able to turn rapidly towards from the missile in the few seconds available and the missile struck her port side towards the stern. Turning towards the missile prevented the missile from penetrating the ship's side at right angles (as it was designed to do), it hit the angle of the deck coaming and ricocheted into the hangar, causing the Wessex helicopter to explode and starting a severe fire both in the hangar and in the main galley immediately below. In all thirteen crew members were killed, and a number wounded. The ship was under way again with all fires extinguished by 10:00.

On the following day, repairs were made at sea, and after the Argentinian surrender on 14 June, more extensive repairs were undertaken in the sheltered waters of San Carlos Bay. She sailed for home on 21 June, and re-entered Portsmouth on 10 July 1982 after 104 days at sea.

[edit] Roll of Honour

The thirteen sailors killed in action during the Falklands War:

Lieutenant David H. R. Tinker
Petty Officer Michael J. Adcock
Petty Officer Colin P. Vickers
Cook Brian Easton
Air Engineering Mechanic Mark Henderson
Air Engineering Mechanic Brian P. Hinge
Acting Chief Air Engineering Mechanic David Lee
Air Engineering Artificer Kelvin I. McCallum
Cook Brian J. Malcolm
Marine Engineering Mechanic Terence W. Perkins
Leading Cook Mark A. Sambles
Leading Cook Anthony E. Sillence
Steward John D. Stroud

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Falklands timeline for Glamorgan
Navy news account of Glamorgan in the Falklands (part 1)
Navy news account of Glamorgan in the Falklands (part 2)
Extract about the Exocet attack on Glamorgan from Sandy Woodward's book (see below).

[edit] Further reading

Tinker, Lieut. David, R.N. (1982). A Message from the Falklands, The Life and Gallant Death of David Tinker, Lieut. R.N. from his Letters and Poems. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-006778-7.